Free Republic

The towering Mother Ukraine statue in Kyiv — one of the nation’s most recognizable landmarks — lost its hammer-and-sickle symbol on Sunday as officials replaced the Soviet-era emblem with the country’s trident coat of arms. The move is part of a wider shift to reclaim Ukraine’s cultural identity from the Communist past amid Russia’s ongoing invasion. Erected in 1981 as part of a larger complex housing the national World War II museum, the 200-foot (61-meter) Mother Ukraine monument stands on the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv, facing eastward toward Moscow. Created in the image of a fearless...

One of the minor outcomes of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s March for Justice on Moscow was that, after he was banished to Belarus, his media empire was shut down. Now there are reports that former employees, who are no longer covered by NDAs, are speaking up about how the propaganda was actually made. (snip) There are apparently a long string of fake reports which were later debunked, designed to anger the populace back home. One infamous story claimed that Ukrainian nationalists had crucified a 3-year-old. This was claimed by an alleged witness who was interviewed back in 2014. "Pretending to be an...

Since June 1, even the radio has been turned off in my cell. I can't see other people, and when I do I'm not allowed to talk to them. So when I entered the courtroom and the courtroom and the lawyers asked me, "So how did martial law go for you?", I thought it was some kind of new joke or Internet meme that hadn't reached me yet. And when, a minute later, they were telling me about the seizure of Rostov, the helicopters that had been shot down, and the armed column heading for Moscow to "kill that bastard...

A two-day incursion from Ukraine into Russia's western borderlands could force the Kremlin to divert troops from front lines as Kyiv prepares a major counteroffensive, and deal Moscow a psychological blow, according to military analysts. Though Kyiv has denied any role, the biggest cross-border raid from Ukraine since Russia invaded 15 months ago was almost certainly coordinated with Ukraine's armed forces as it prepares to attempt to recapture territory, the experts added. "The Ukrainians are trying to pull the Russians in different directions to open up gaps. The Russians are forced to send reinforcements," said Neil Melvin, an analyst at...

Former President Trump claimed Tuesday that his potential future administration would reach a deal on abortion that "the whole country" would be okay with. "Now DeSantis, or Ron DeSanctimonious as I call him, he came out with the six weeks. Other people agree with it. And a lot of people don't," Trump said in an interview with Newsmax. "We're in a position now – and I'm going to be leading the charge – we're in the position now where we can get something that the whole country can agree with, and that's only because I got us out of the...

A trio of Vladimir Putin's leading hypersonic scientists have been detained on suspicion of high treason in what fellow scientists have declared a 'witch hunt' Aerodynamics specialist Dr Valery Zvegintsev, 78, is the latest of three prominent scientists from the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Novosibirsk to be arrested on extremely serious charges. Zvegintsev, 78, along with Anatoly Maslov and Alexander Shiplyuk, are seen as key figures in the development of Russia's hypersonic weapons programme which is thought to be one of the world's most advanced. News of their detention on suspicion of high treason comes days...